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By David Monti, @ d9monti
(c) Weekly 2020 race results, all rights reserved
(Oct 17) – On what was definitely a good day in a bad year for the road race, Peres Jepchirchir of Kenya and Jacob Kiplimo of Uganda took the gold medals at today’s World Athletics Half Marathon Championships in the Polish coastal city of Gdynia about 21 kilometers north of Gdansk. Jepchirchir, 27, won her second world title in the half-marathon discipline and broke her own women’s-only world record by 16 seconds in 1:05:18. Kiplimo, just 19 years old, won his first world title setting a championship and a Ugandan record of 58:49. The team titles went to Ethiopia (women) and Kenya (men), and both individual champions won $ 30,000 in prize money (Jepchirchir also won a world record bonus of $ 50,000).
FAST WOMEN OF THE GUN –
Kenya’s Peres Jepchirchir celebrates after winning the 2020 World Athletics Half Marathon Championships in a new world record for a women-only race of 1:05:18 (photo by Dan Vernon for World Athletics)
Reigning TCS New York City Marathon champion Joyciline Jepkosgei of Kenya launched herself from the start and immediately set a fast pace for the women. Although the fairways were a bit wet from the morning rain, Jepkosgei traversed the first kilometer in 3:07, setting the field on pace to run below 66:00. Another dozen women joined Jepkosgei, including her teammates Peres Jepchirchir, Dorcas Kimeli, Rosemary Wanjiru and Brillian Kipkoech, and the entire Ethiopian team of Zeineba Yimer, Netsanet Gudeta, Ababel Yeshanehlaw, Yalemzerf Yehua and Sisay Gola. Yasmin Can from Turkey, Melat Kejeta from Germany and Lonah Salpeter from Israel rounded out the leading group.
Jepkosgei kept the pace up, hitting the 5-kilometer mark in 15:20, and cut the projected finish time to less than 65 minutes, well below the only women’s world record of 1:05:34 set by Jepchirchir in Prague. last month.
With such a rapid pace, the herd soon began to shrink. At the 8-kilometer mark, three Kenyans – Kimeli, Kipkoech and Wanjiru – lost a beat, as did Gola from Ethiopia and Salpeter from Israel. The leaders, however, remained grouped (Jepchirchir was still gesturing for his Ethiopian rivals to stop hot on their heels), and soon the race saw its first crash. Running on the downhill stretch of the 5440-meter loop towards the water at kilometer 9, Gudeta stumbled trying to make a sharp left turn onto the road that skirts the boardwalk. Gudeta, the defending champion, hit her left knee hard and scraped both her hands. Although he recovered quickly, he had lost valuable time and was five seconds behind when the leaders reached the 10km mark in an overwhelming 30:47.
Seven women were still competing for the podium: Can, Jepkosgei, Yeshaneh, Yimer, Jepkorir, Yehualaw and Kejeta. The big surprise was that Kejeta, with only a personal best of 1:08:41, was still in dispute. His best 5000m track time was 16:06, and he ran 5 consecutive Ks in 15:21 and 15:26, respectively.
At kilometer 14, Jepkosgei climbed again but failed to knock down a single opponent. The group of seven met again and passed through 15-K at 46:24. They had slowed down at 3:38 p.m. for the last 5-kilometer stretch.
Moments later, disaster struck. At kilometer 18, Jepkosgei and Yeshaneh tangled their legs and both women fell to the pavement. Yeshaneh, the world record holder with a personal best of 1:04:31, landed hard on her right shoulder.
“That fall he just opened the race completely,” said Olympic marathoner Mara Yamauchi, who was providing color commentary on the global broadcast.
In fact, the group of leaders fell apart leaving only Jepchirchir, Yehualaw and Kejeta in contention for the medals. The sun had risen, and as the trio headed toward the boardwalk for the fourth and final time, the order of arrival seemed set: Jepchirchir followed by Yehualaw and Kejeta.
But when the three women made a slight right turn toward the carpeted home stretch built on a deck on the beach, Yehualaw lost traction due to the surface change and slipped. Although she did not fall, her momentum was interrupted long enough for Kejeta to pass her and take the silver medal in 1:05:18, a new European record for an all-female race. Yehualaw got bronze in his personal best 1:05:19.
“I feel good,” Jepchirchir said in his post-race interview. “I thank God for the energy he has given me today. Is incredible; I wasn’t expecting it (a new world record) but God planned it for me. “
Yimer finished fourth (1:05:39) and Yeshaneh was fifth (1:05:41). With the top 3 of each team scoring in total time, that gave the Ethiopian women the team title in 3:16:39 ahead of the Kenyans (3:18:10) and Germany (3:28:42) . Gudeta, the defending champion, finished eighth. Jepkosgei, who had done much of the leadership, finished sixth. In total 101 women finished the race.
MEN START SLOW BUT END FAST –
Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo wins the 2020 World Athletics Half Marathon Championships with a championship record of 58:49 (photo by Dan Vernon for World Athletics)
The men’s race got off to a conservative start, with the first kilometer passing in just 2:54, slower than in the best marathons in the world. Thirty-five men were within two seconds of the nominal leader, Aras Kaya of Turkey, at the 5-kilometer mark that was passed in 14:19. That put the field on pace to run around 60:30.
But the pace would heat up pretty soon. Kenya’s Kibiwott Kandie, the fastest man on the field with a career-high 58:38, threw short breaks in the sixth and eighth kilometers just to shake the field. Those actions brought the group to a more manageable 23 at the 10K mark (28:23). Kandie pushed again at kilometer 12, but this time it was different. This time the pace stayed high and the athletes began to pull out of contention. The group reached 15-K in 42:17, and with the third 5-K segment covered in 13:54, only 11 men remained in contention.
Among that group were two Ugandan track specialists, Joshua Cheptegei and Jacob Kiplimo. Cheptegei, who set world records this year in the 5000m and 10,000m, was making his half marathon debut today and was happy to stay within the group. Kiplimo, only 19 years old, had only run a half marathon, but it was only a national class race in Uganda and they had never been tested in the distance.
At kilometer 16, Kandie climbed back up and this time the group broke up forever. Both Cheptegei and Kiplimo covered the movement as did Amedework Walelegn from Ethiopia. Kiplimo looked confident and relaxed.
“It still looks great as a cucumber,” commentator Tim Hutchings said on World Feed.
About 50 minutes after the race, Kiplimo began to walk away from Kandie, who would have to settle for second place. Cheptegei, who was third, was overtaken by Walelegn and had to settle for fourth at the end. No one else was close enough to catch up.
Racing along the boardwalk to the finish, Kiplimo kept up his pace and sailed to the finish in 58:49, a new championship record. Kandie crossed second in 58:54 becoming the first man to run three half marathons below 59:00 in the same year. The third was for Walelegn in 59:08, his personal best.
“After five kilometers I know I was going to win,” Kiplimo said in his post-race interview wearing a surgical mask. He continued: “It was great to win.”
In the order of arrival, Cheptegei made an excellent debut in 59:21, and Andamlak Belihu of Ethiopia (59:32) completed the top 5. The European top was Morhad Amdouni of France, who set a national record of 59:40 in the eighth place.
The team title went to Kenya in 2:58:10, just 15 seconds ahead of Ethiopia (2:58:25). Uganda came in third place in 2:58:39.
In total, 117 men finished the race.
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